Letang, Kessel each score twice as Penguins top Islanders

Kris Letang and Phil Kessel each scored twice Thursday as the Pittsburgh
Penguins trounced the visiting New York Islanders 6-2.

Kessel also had two assists, Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists, Riley
Sheahan scored, and Jake Guentzel had three assists for Pittsburgh, which won
its second straight and fourth in six games.

Goaltender Casey DeSmith made 19 saves for the Penguins.

Pittsburgh winger Patric Hornqvist, coming off a hat trick game, did not play
after the first period. There was no immediate word on his status.

Brock Nelson and Anders Lee scored for New York, which lost its second in a
row and is 1-3-1 in its past five.

Thomas Greiss allowed five goals on 21 shots through two periods before
yielding to Christopher Gibson, who stopped six of seven Pittsburgh shots.

Letang opened the scoring at 8:34 of the first. From the right point, he
started a give-and-go with Derick Brassard deep, moving up to the dot to
convert the return from Brassard.

Pittsburgh allowed its league-worst eighth shorthanded goal when Nelson tied
it 1-1 at 17:43 of the first. Former Penguins winger Tom Kuhnhackl fished the
puck away from defenseman Jamie Oleksiak along the end boards and fed Nelson
in the left circle. Nelson skated in on DeSmith and beat him on a poke-check
attempt.

Letang struck again with 28.5 seconds left in the first on a slap shot from
the center point to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead.

Sheahan upped it to 3-1 at 7:21 of the second when he batted an airborne puck
past Greiss, a play that withstood a review.

Kessel's power-play goal at 12:09 made it 4-1. He polished off a sharp passing
sequence.

At 17:37 of the second period, Kessel got his second goal, slamming home a
feed from Crosby at the left post for a 5-1 Pittsburgh lead.

Lee made it 5-2 on a short-range backhanded flip at 4:23 of the third period.

Crosby notched his team-leading 15th goal when he roofed a severe-angle shot
at 13:00 of the third.